Golden Rays
by VictorianPearl
Summary: [HIATUS]It's been a month since the end of Kingdom Hearts II. Even though the Heartless were sealed, their Nobodies have been left behind to terrorize Twilight Town. It's up to Sora and the gang to stop the Nobodies and save the town. SoraKairi, RoxasNa
1. Sunburned Hearts

VictorianPearl: I'm taking a small break from writing CCS fictions to write a couple of Kingdom Hearts fictions

VictorianPearl: I'm taking a small break from writing CCS fictions to write a couple of Kingdom Hearts fictions. This fiction is post Kingdom Hearts II. This idea came to me sort of randomly, but I've got lots of good ideas for it. I'm typing it as I feel, but I'll probably post after I've gotten a few chapters down. I'm really looking forward to this fiction and I hope you will all like it.

Summary: It has only been about a month after the end of Kingdom Hearts II. Even though the Heartless have been sealed away, their Nobodies have been left behind to terrorize Twilight Town. It is now up to Sora, Riku, Kairi, and some other friends, to stop the Nobodies and save the town.

**Golden Rays**

**Chapter One: Sunburned Hearts **

It was a lazy day on the mother island of Destiny Islands. That was just the way Sora liked it these days. There had been so much going on during the fight against the Heartless that there had never been time to relax before. Remembering those days made Sora treasure these ones even more.

Sora, Riku, and Kairi had just gotten out of school and they were now traveling down the dirt road to the docks. The sun was straight overhead in the sky, beating down its warm rays. The ever lapping waves of the ocean set the scene to the peaceful atmosphere.

Sora had never realized how much he had actually missed school. Although he had always remained fairly carefree and naïve during his battle with the Keyblade, he didn't realize that a large part of him had been forced to grow up. Going to school and doing such routine things helped him bring back his true nature. It might have been helping Riku more than Sora though.

If what had happened to Sora had forced him to grow up, then Riku was well beyond his years. He had been mature for his age two years _before_ the journey, but now he was to compare with. With Sora and Kairi's help though, he was quickly loosening up.

The three best friends chatted as they came up to the docks. King Mickey, Donald, and Goofy all visited fairly often, or at least the latter two did. King Mickey had come to visit often at first, but now his duties as a king were catching up with him and he was finding less and less time to visit. The three didn't blame him though, it was perfectly understandable.

"I'll race you there!" Sora called behind him, jumping in his boat, causing the waves to thrash a bit underneath him.

"With you, it's _always_ a race," Kairi commented, giggling, "You don't know how to relax, do you?"

"What do you mean?" Sora asked, leaning back in the boat. 'This is relaxing."

"You haven't caught on yet, Kairi." Riku said, climbing down into his boat. "With Sora, you just have to smile and nod."

"Yeah, that's what you say now," Sora commented, "but you always race me. It's not like I win all the time."

"I have to let you think I'm playing along." Riku said coolly.

Sora opened his mouth, but Kairi cut him off. "Come on you two, you enjoy racing and we all know it, so stop arguing, it will save us more time that we can imagine."

The three friends laughed good naturedly at the conversation. Kairi slipped down into her boat and gently pushed off, already quite some ways behind Riku and Sora. She rowed her boat at a slow pace, not wanting to wear herself out. When she got to the island, Sora was doing cartwheels of victory for winning the race. Riku made some sort of comment about how immature he was, but Sora knew better.

"So where are we going to do today?" Kairi asked her two friends.

"We're going to the little island with the poupu trees." Riku said.

"I'll race you." Sora challenged.

The two were off again, a blur of black and yellow. Kairi laughed as she began to run behind them. She was making her way to the bridge when something caught her eye. There in the water was a bottle with a message in it. Kairi ran out into the waves and picked up the bottle. She immediately saw the King's insignia on the paper and began to run up to the bridge.

Kairi ran across the bridge to the little island where Sora and Riku were now relaxing on the bent palm tree. She ran up behind them and dropped the bottle into Sora's hands.

"It's from the king!" Kairi announced.

Riku turned his attention to watch as Sora pulled out the stopper and shook out the paper inside. He unrolled the paper and the three best friends read it together. Sora read it twice over, just to be sure.

_Dear Sora, Riku, and Kairi,_

_I'm sorry to inform you that your journey is not yet over. I hate to bring you back from your island after so short a time, but I fear it is inevitable. Although you have sealed away the Heartless, it seems that Twilight Town is still being attacked by the Nobodies left behind. _

_I have visited the town and they need your help. None of the other worlds are having any of these problems, just Twilight Town. I will be sending a gummi ship for you with Donald and Goofy. I had wanted to see you soon but I hadn't thought it would be like this. _

_Your Friend,_

_King Mickey_

There was a silence after everyone had read the letter. Sora's eyes didn't come off of the paper. Riku and Kairi glanced back and force between each other, waiting for Sora to say something.

"Well," Sora started, "it looks like we get to visit Haynar and the gang."

"Looks like it." Kairi commented.

"You're not upset, are you?" Riku asked.

"Upset? No, I'm not upset." Sora said. "I'm glad we have a reason to go and visit them. This wasn't exactly what I had in mind, but whatever works." Sora sent Kairi and Riku a big smile.

Kairi hugged Sora around the waist. "I'm so glad. I want to be able to fight with you two. All I ever did before was watch, that's why I was kidnapped by Axle in the first place."

Sora nodded in agreement. "Yeah, we'll all go and help them out. Mickey didn't make it sound too serious, so I'm not exactly full of worry. Plus, I'm excited to have a go at Struggle."

"_That's_ what you're excited about?" Riku asked incredulously. "You're excited about _Struggle_."

Sora nodded, wondering why Riku was asking such an obvious question. "Of course I am, aren't you?"

Riku crossed his arms. "Well…maybe a little."

"Hey, whatcha doing there Kairi?" Sora asked, leaning forward to read the paper she was scribbling on from her book bag.

"I'm making a shopping list." Kairi said. "Olette and I are going to have to take a trip around the market."

"And just whose munny do you plan on spending?" Sora asked curiously.

"I have some of my own." Kairi said innocently. "But you collected so much on your journey, I just though I might borrow a thousand munny."

"A thousand?" Sora gaped, almost falling off of the bent palm tree. "When you say _borrow_, do you actually plan on paying me back? I do want to save some of that munny for the future you know."

Kairi rolled her eyes jokingly. "Isn't that future going to be with me though?"

Sora immediately blushed. "Well, I um…yeah, but-I…"

Kairi and Riku laughed. "Don't worry, Sora." Kairi assured. "I'll pay you back…_eventually_."

Riku and Kairi laughed some more as Sora narrowed his eyes slightly. "Alright, but you don't sound so sure."

The three hung out for about an hour before Riku pestered them back to the docks. He wasn't really pestering, he just kept reminding them that they had homework and should go and finish it. Sora kept arguing that it was Friday and that they had all weekend to finish it, but Riku would have none of that. According to our white haired friend, now that they would be leaving soon, they would have to get as much work done as possible so that they weren't completely behind when they got back.

"Come on Riku." Sora said, slapping his best friend on the back. "Kitoro-sensei doesn't care about our work. She's practically in _love_ with you. As long as you give her a good story, she'll let it slide."

"All the more reason not too." Riku said. "Just because you have the power to do something, doesn't mean you have to use it all the time. Just like you and the Keyblade, Sora. Even though you can unlock any lock, do you go around unlocking everything like a maniac?"

"Of course not," Sora said, "I have privacy to respect."

"Exactly," Riku said, "and I have trust to respect."

Sora looked at Kairi, who shook her head, and he finally gave up. It wasn't that he minded doing homework much, he just liked to pester Riku about Kitono-sensei whenever possible.

Riku had begun to untie his boat as Kairi and Sora were walking up to theirs. Sora reached down for his rope and felt a sharp pain in his chest. He instantly recoiled and clutched his chest. He breathed and waited for the moment to pass.

Kairi noticed that something was wrong with Sora. "Are you alright, Sora?" She asked.

Sora nodded, and went to reach for the rope again. This time the pain came even sharper than before and Sora fell onto his knees on the dock.

"Riku," Kairi cried, alerting her friend of what had happened. She ran from her boat to Riku, who was now beside Sora.

"Hey Sora, what's wrong?" Riku asked, placing a hand on his friend's back.

"My heart," was all Sora managed to whisper before he slumped forward to be caught by Riku.

Kairi dropped to her knees and grabbed Sora's hand as Riku flipped the younger boy onto his back. Sora was not unconscious, but he didn't seem to be all there either. His eyes were half closed and he mumbled something about "hearts".

"Riku, what's wrong?" Kairi asked.

"I don't know." Riku replied. He tried shaking his friend's shoulders. "Hey Sora, snap out of it."

When there was no avail, Kairi tried. "Sora, please come back." She squeezed his left hand with her right and placed her left hand over his heart.

When Kairi placed her hand over his heart, that seemed to bring Sora back. He blinked his brilliant blue eyes a couple of times before taking a deep breath. He looked around at everyone.

"What just happened to me?"

Riku shrugged as he helped his friend sit up. "We'll have to ask when Donald and Goofy get here, maybe they'll know something."

"Yeah…" Sora trailed, placing his right hand over his heart. "It felt like something was tugging at me. It was like something was trying to break away from me, and I didn't mind."

"Did it hurt?" Kairi asked slowly, her hands now buried in her skirt.

Sora shook his head. "Not much, it was just weird."

The three looked at each other for a few moments in silence. Riku was the first to break it.

"Come on, let's get back to the island. We'll have some food before we start homework, which should help you feel better."

Sora nodded in agreement. "You know just what to make me feel better, Riku."

"It's not exactly a big secret." Kairi said, giggling.

Sora scratched behind his head. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

They each got in their boats and headed back to the mother island. Riku stayed slightly behind Sora's boat, just in case Sora went falling again. There was no falling though, and everyone made it back to the mother island without getting too wet. They all went to Sora's house and ate his mom's awesome cooking before settling in Sora's room to finish their homework.

It only took an hour to get everything finished, and by that time, everyone was ready to go home and have a second dinner. Sora walked his two friends outside. Riku said goodbye and headed to the left, where as Kairi headed to the right. She was a little ways down the road when she turned around and ran back, launching herself into Sora's arms.

Sora was surprised by Kairi's actions, but he didn't at all mind them. He tightly wrapped his arms around her and held her for a few moments. Kairi stood on her tip toes and whispered "goodbye" into his ear before kissing him on the cheek and running away.

The former Keyblade wielder brought his hand to his cheek as he watched his childhood crush, and now, girlfriend, run off into the twilight to her home. Twilight…just thinking about it got him excited. Twilight lead to thinking about Donald and Goofy, which lead to thinking about Nobodies, and forgetting the earlier pain in his heart.

Sora turned to go back inside and eat some more of his mom's awesome cooking along with his dad. After dinner he would call Riku and talk to him, and then he would call Kairi. Yep, the rest of this evening sounded pretty relaxing. He was going to enjoy it while it lasted.

VVV

VictorianPearl: And there is chapter one. I plan on making the other chapters longer, but this was just the kick off. I'm not sure how often updates will be. Hopefully, since I'll have at least four or five of these pre-written, I'll get one chapter a week. Please R&R and tell me what you think.


	2. Solar Power

VictorianPearl: Here is the next chapter

VictorianPearl: Here is the next chapter. This chapter won't get too deep into the plotline, but it will have some important information for later. I forgot to disclaim the last chapter, so since it's in style or something, I'll disclaim this one. I do not own the Kingdom Hearts series, although it would be cool if I did. Now on with the fiction!

**Golden Rays**

**Chapter 2: Solar Power**

Sora, Kairi, and Riku were in their last class of the day. Although they were usually anxious to get out of class on Friday, this particular Friday was pretty bad. Even Riku, the most serious of them all when it came to school, was tapping his pencil and glancing at the clock every two minutes. Sora was pretending to take notes, but was really sketching, and Kairi was staring out the window.

Kitoro-sensei kept on going and going, just like the energizer bunny, her lecture had seemingly no end to it. On Sora's paper, there was a large picture of a gummi ship. In the cockpit, it was easily made out that Sora, Donald, and Goofy were inside. He then went on to draw large laser beams shooting at the Heartless.

As Riku glanced at the clock again, he saw that it was nearing 2:45 quickly. Kitoro-sensei wrapped up her lecture and gave out the homework. Riku and Kairi quickly scribbled down the homework in barely legible writing. A quick glance at Sora's paper showed that he had drawn the Keyblade summoning a curagra spell.

Kitoro-sensei finally stopped talking and glanced at the clock. "Alright class, I don't normally do this, but because you're so anxious to get home," she quickly glanced at Sora, Riku, and Kairi, "I'm going to let you out early."

The entire class jumped up at once, yelling their thanks to Kitoro-sensei as they ran out the door. Sora ran ahead of his other two friends, straight toward the docks. Riku and Kairi didn't have to ask why, they just ran after him. It had been one week since they had gotten the letter from King Mickey, so they were expecting Donald and Goofy any moment now.

The three friends untied their boats and jumped in. They didn't talk at all, they just rowed as fast as they could to the little island. Even Kairi joined in the race this time. When they got to the docks at the island and had tied up their boats, they ran around like little kids, hollering and laughing. They hugged each other, they spun around, and then they flopped on the beach and laughed until their sides hurt.

"Twilight Town," Sora managed through his aching sides, "I can't wait to see everyone."

Riku, who was to the left of Sora, coughed a little. "Don't forget about Struggle."

"Yeah, if you're really good, you can verse that Setzer guy." Kairi said. "You remember him, don't you?"

"I remember," Riku spoke for Sora, "how could you forget someone like that?"

"Seriously," Sora commented, "he was a bit…interesting."

"What do you mean?" Kairi asked, turning onto her left side to look at Sora, who was between herself and Riku.

Sora and Riku looked at each other before busting up with laughter.

Kairi frowned. "What's so funny? I don't see what was so wrong with him."

Sora coughed a bit. "Well, Kairi, he was wearing purple."

Kairi nodded slowly. "Your point being..?"

Riku sat up. "Let me put it this way," he said, "for guys, purple is a very…_bold_ color, especially when you're as popular as Setzer."

Kairi watched as Sora and Riku snickered some more. It was time like these, when she saw their degrading maturity, that confused her. They always acted more boyish over matters that didn't make any sense. What was the big deal about a guy wearing purple? Heck, she had seen guys wear pink before, purple was nowhere as bad as pink…not that pink was bad in the first place, of course.

When Riku and Sora finally got over themselves, Kairi suggested that they go to the secret place to get the clothes they were hiding there. Sora and Riku, seeing nothing better to do anyway, agreed. The three had slowly been taking over belongings and hiding them in the secret place, that way, when the gummi ship came, they would be able to leave right away.

Sora ran up ahead to move the overgrowth out of the way from the entrance.

"After the ladies,"

That earned him a punch in the shoulder from Riku, which was very painful. Sora rubbed his arm vigorously to get the pain out. Riku innocently grabbed his clothing bag, pretending that nothing had happened.

"That hurt, Riku." Sora commented. "You could have hit a _little_ less hard."

Riku smirked. "Your comment hurt me just as much."

Sora kicked up some dirt at Riku. "Yeah right, the only thing that's going to hurt you is your butt after I kick it."

"I'm scared now." Riku said, putting up his hands.

"Come on guys," Kairi cut in, "let's go outside and wait for Donald and Goofy to come pick us up."

Kairi walked up to Sora and grabbed his hand, gently pulling him away from the staring contest that he was having with Riku. As they walked outside, Sora kept glancing behind him to make sure that Riku wouldn't pull anything funny. Riku just plastered a completely innocent look over his face.

When the three got outside, they plopped down at the ledge across from the little waterfall. They rummaged through their backpacks, double checking to make sure that everything was there. Kairi sat in between the two boys to make sure that there would be no fight outbreaks. She wanted at least one day without sparring. It wasn't long before Sora tried to convince Kairi to let them spar though.

"Please, Kairi, pretty please? We promise we won't hurt each other." Sora pleaded, widening his brilliant blue eyes.

Kairi was having a hard time keeping her ground. Whenever Sora's eyes got big, it was always hard for her to keep her ground. He was too innocent for his own good.

"Sora, can't you do something else besides spar. There has to be something out there for you and Riku to do." Kairi tried.

Sora put his hand to his chin in thought. His eyes looked up in though, and then came back down to stare deeply into Kairi's. "Could we _train_?"

"Same meaning, different word," Kairi said.

"We could duel." Riku suggested. "Or maybe we could practice."

Kairi rolled her eyes and threw her hands up. "Fine, you win, you can _duel_. But you can only duel if I'm dueling with you."

Riku and Sora glanced from each other, to Kairi, and back. Kairi crossed her arms, thinking that she had won. She, unfortunately, was very wrong.

"Alight Kairi, this will be fun!" Sora said, pulling his girlfriend up.

"Yeah," Riku agreed, "you hardly ever spar with us, you always just watch."

"Well, I…" Kairi didn't know how to tell them that she had only been joking.

"You'll need some practice for when it comes time to fight the Nobodies." Sora said cheerfully.

Before anyone could start sparring, or practicing, or dueling, the form of a gummi ship began to come into view. At first, the three friends did not see the ship. As it approached though, they heard it coming and quickly saw what was going on. They began to jump up and down, waving the gummi ship into landing.

The gummi ship soared down until it was hovering over the beach. It landed, causing wind to go rushing through the island. The three best friends braced themselves as it took a while for the ship to land. When it finally did land though, the wind slowly stopped and the cockpit slowly opened.

"Donald, Goofy," Sora cried, rushing to his friends and hugging them as they clambered onto the beach.

"Hey there, Sora," Goofy greeted, "how are ya doin'?"

"We've only been gone for five weeks!" Donald exclaimed. "Did you miss us that much already?"

"Of course I did!" Sora said, pulling back.

"We missed you too." Kairi said as she and Riku walked up to the ship.

"When can we leave?" Riku asked bluntly.

This earned Riku an elbow in his side, courtesy of Kairi. Riku shrugged as Kairi crossed her arms at him.

"Sure, we can leave right now if ya want." Goofy said, hyucking.

"Yeah," Sora agreed, "let's go now. I can't wait to see how everyone else is doing."

"They're okay, but they need our help." Donald said. "The Nobodies haven't done any damage yet, but their numbers are increasing like crazy."

"All the more reason to leave sooner," Riku commented.

"Then let's go, hyuck." Goofy suggested.

The five of them climbed up into the gummi ship. Sora immediately jumped into the pilot's seat and buckled up. Donald argued a bit, but Sora eventually won. Just like old times. Goofy and Donald took the co-pilot seats while Kairi and Riku took the passenger seats.

"There have been some changes since the last time I drove this ship." Sora commented, speculating a new screen and gauge along with the controls.

"Sure," Donald said, "we got Cid to install a backup power system into the ship, solar power."

Sora simply nodded, a wicked grin on his face.

"Hold on guys," Sora said as they readied for take off, "I haven't done this in a while."

Riku and Kairi glanced at each other quickly before gripping their arm rests. Take off was bumpy, to describe lightly, but the journey to Twilight Town was surprisingly smooth. The landing was bumpy as well, but not as bad as the take off was. The five of them got out to find that Sora had landed them in the front yard of the Old Mansion.

"Nice parking spot." Riku commented.

"Why thank you." Sora said proudly, putting his hands on his hips. "So, how was it?"

"Well, Sora," Riku said, putting a hand on his best friend's shoulder, "if you're referring to the flight, we're here and alive, so that's all that matters."

"Hey," Sora cried, "I wasn't bad."

"I thought you did a fine job, Sora." Goofy commented.

"Yeah, like Riku said, we got here safely, right?" Donald said.

Sora frowned slightly, but then smiled widely. "Yeah, I guess you're right." He paused to look around. "So where are all the Nobodies?"

"They're here." Donald said. "Don't worry, you'll get plenty of chances to fight them."

"Why don't we visit everyone first?" Riku suggested.

Sora and Kairi nodded in agreement. "That sounds like a good idea." Kairi said.

"Are you two going to come?" Sora asked Donald and Goofy.

"Not yet," Goofy said, "we're gonna contact the King first and tell him that we got here safely."

"Well, okay then." Sora said slowly. "We'll be at The Usual Spot if you guys are looking for us."

Donald and Goofy waved good bye as Sora, Kairi, and Riku headed off. They walked through the Woods, the Tram Market, and up to the Back Ally without running into any sort of trouble. It was as they walked up to the Usual Spot that they ran into their first trouble.

Hayner was standing outside of the Usual Spot, holding a Struggle bat in his hands. He was swinging at the Nobodies, but their extendable bodies slipped through his every attack. He didn't even notice his friends coming up to help him.

"Hayner," Sora shouted, "duck!"

Hayner saw Sora and dropped to the ground. Sora hurled the Keyblade through the air. It acted as a boomerang would, spinning around, taking out the Nobody, and then swinging back around to Sora. Riku summoned his Soul Eater and Kairi summoned the Keyblade that Riku had given her. The two began to fight next to Sora.

It was only a matter of moments before all of the Nobodies had been vanquished. Sora and Kairi sent their Keyblades away with a burst of light, while Riku sent his with a burst of darkness. Pence and Olette peaked out from behind the red curtain of the Usual Spot.

"Hayner, are you alright?" Olette asked, running forward to help her friend up.

"I'm fine, thanks to Sora, Kairi, and Riku." Hayner said.

Olette and Pence looked up to see the three teens from Destiny Islands standing in front of them. Olette immediately came forward to hug Kairi.

"We're so glad to see you." Olette told them before pulling back. "Those Nobodies have been causing quite some trouble for us. Although, I wish you could have had a better reason for coming."

Kairi shook her head and smiled. "Whatever works."

"Come inside you guys." Hayner said, lifting up the curtain for everyone. "We've got some explaining to do, all of us."

Everyone crowded onto the couches in the Usual Spot. Riku, Pence, and Hayner sat on one couch while Sora, Kairi, and Olette sat on the other.

"So where are Donald and Goofy?" Pence asked.

"They're back at our gummi ship contacting King Mickey." Sora explained. "The king told us about what was going on over here a few days ago. Donald and Goofy picked us up at our island, and here we are."

Olette nodded. "Things were pretty normal here for a while, but then we started to see the Nobodies coming around. We thought that maybe a few had been left behind from before, but they didn't stop coming. Only the Keyblade wielders can get rid of them, so there was nothing that we could do to help our town."

Hayner nodded in agreement. "Believe us, we tried. As you just saw, I failed at helping at all."

"That doesn't matter." Riku said slowly. "Your heart was in the right place."

Hayner shrugged and crossed his arms. "Now that you guys are here, perhaps we can help more."

"Sure," Sora agreed, "there will be plenty of stuff you guys can help out with."

"Like what?" Pence asked curiously.

"Like…well," Sora put his hands behind his head, "I'm not sure yet, but we'll think of something, right?"

Kairi nodded and smiled. "Right,"

Olette stood up and clapped her hands to get everyone's attention. "Enough talk of fighting for now. Who wants some sea-salt ice cream?"

Everyone smiled and nodded in complete agreement. Olette smiled satisfactorily and walked over to the miniature freezer to get out the ice cream. She passed out the blue bars to everyone and took one for herself. For a while, it was fairly silent as the gang slurped their ice cream.

"So," Pence said, breaking the silence, "where do you guys plan on staying?"

Riku slowly paused after eating his ice cream. "Actually, we hadn't thought of that yet."

"I'm sure Donald and Goofy have it figured out, though." Kairi said. "They'll tell us whenever they're done."

Pence nodded. "If you ever need a place to stay, we would gladly team up and let you guys come over our houses."

"Sure," Hayner agreed.

"I wouldn't mind." Olette said calmly.

"Aww, you guys are too much." Sora said, smiling widely.

Just then, Donald and Goofy walked into the room.

"Hey Donald, hey Goofy," Sora greeted cheerfully.

"Sora, we've got trouble in the Sandlot." Donald said in a panicked tone.

"Trouble…what kind of trouble?" Sora asked, standing up.

"The Nobodies are appearing and scaring all of the people." Goofy replied.

Riku stood up. "Alright, let's go and settle this." Everyone stood up after him. "Come on guys, let's even the score."

Everyone nodded in agreement and ran outside toward the Sandlot. When they got there, people were screaming and running away. Apparently there had been a large crowd watching a Struggle tournament, that's what attracted the Nobodies. Now they were twisting all over the place and hitting the walls.

"Pence, Hayner, Olette," Sora called, "you guys get all of the people out of here, we'll take care of the Nobodies."

"Right," the three said in unison, and began pushing people toward the exits.

Sora, Riku, Kairi, Donald, and Goofy immediately started attacking the Nobodies. They waited until all of the people were out of the Sandlot before they started using magic spells. Sora and Kairi fought back to back against the dancer Nobodies while Riku ran around attacking the larger targets.

Thundaga spells were bouncing off of the floor, courtesy to Donald. Thankfully, he was careful as not to attack one of his friends. Goofy went into tornado mode and began taking out the samurai Nobodies.

There was a loud magical burst from the center of the fight. Sora and Kairi managed to use a limit, sending white colored magic flying around and attacking the Nobodies. Riku rolled his eyes as he saw this and cast his dark aura at the enemy. Sometimes, Sora could be such an attention snatcher and not even know it.

After appearing three consecutive times in a row, the Nobodies finally got the hint and stopped appearing. The six fighters were pretty tired when everything calmed down. They searched the Sandlot over once everything was settled, just in case. When they found that everything was as back to normal as it could be, they went to find Hayner, Pence, and Olette.

They found them waiting in the Market Common, near the Back Ally. They met up with each other and that's when the talk exploded.

"You guys were awesome." Olette complimented.

"Aw shucks," Donald said bashfully.

"Thanks for helping to get all of those people out of there." Sora said.

"It was easy." Hayner said, waving his hand.

"Even though it was small, it felt like we did something right." Pence said.

"It was right, and those people were probably happy about it, hyuck." Goofy said.

"Yeah, what Goofy said." Sora said.

"Remember, guys, that was far from the last battle." Riku said.

"Lighten up a bit." Kairi said, hugging her friend. "There will be lots of time to be serious later."

Sora was about to ask Donald and Goofy what the king had said earlier, but he was cut short when he felt a familiar pain in his heart. Sora grasped his heart and stared down at the ground. He felt someone touch his arm. He looked up to see Kairi watching him closely. She said something, but he couldn't hear her. He could only hear a strange buzzing sound in his ears.

The sight of his friends soon turned into the sight of the twilit sky, beaming down its golden rays. He faintly heard a voice in his head trying to tell him something, but what it was saying was indefinable. Riku and Kairi's faces swam into view, along with another face…Roxas's?

VVV

VictorianPearl: Alright, like I said, we're not too deep into the plotline yet, but it was a good setup chapter. I plan on having the chapters progressively get longer and longer as I go. I'm also going to add a bit more action and adventure into it to make it more exciting. Anyway, I hope you were fairly satisfied with this chapter, please R&R!


	3. Heat Wave

VictorianPearl: Alright, I know that you've been waiting for it

VictorianPearl: Alright, I know that you've been waiting for it. We're going to get really deep into the plot in this chapter. I also may or may not add some action to it, you'll just have to read and find out.

**Golden Rays**

**Chapter 3: Heat Wave**

Deep, swirling, blackness enveloped him. It wasn't a cold gaping darkness though, it was a warm, comforting one. Sora didn't know where he was, or why he was, but he was comfortable. He wasn't sure why he noticed, but his heart seemed extremely light in weight. He knew that there was something he should remember about his heart, but he couldn't remember what.

Sora looked down at his chest. His arms were crossed over his heart. He tried to move them out of the way, but they felt too heavy to do so. Feeling too tired to even try a second time, he let his arms rest over his heart and resorted to thought. His thoughts weren't clear, he was only half awake in this warm darkness, and he couldn't put the pieces in his mind, or heart, together.

"Where am I?" Sora whispered, hoping that maybe that might earn him an answer. He didn't actually think that it would work.

"Right now, we're in your heart." A voice said.

Sora nodded, not really minding that a voice from seemingly nowhere was giving him answers to his questions. "My heart, eh? I've been here lots of times."

The voice chuckled a bit. "You're pretty out of it. If only you could hear yourself."

Blue eyes searched the darkness for the source of this dulcet voice that was oddly soothing, but nothing was found. "Why don't you come out and talk to me? It would be easier for the both of us."

There was a long pause, as if maybe the voice was in thought. "Are you sure you want me to do that?"

Sora shrugged, or at least, he tried to shrug, but found that he was too heavy. "Yeah, it's much more comforting to know that there's someone there to talk to, rather than just the darkness."

If the voice was indeed a person, or a something, Sora thought that it might be nodding its head in approval right now. "I see your point, Sora. I suppose I could come out then, but you might be a little confused."

Nothing, at the moment, was confusing to our half awake Sora. Although his mind was indeed, half awake, everything made uncanny sense. If it was supposed to be, it was, and if it wasn't, it wasn't. His mind easily accepted what it was given without question, leaving no room for confusion.

In the back of the darkness, Sora began to make out a figure coming nearer. At first, he wondered if he was imagining it among the swirling darkness. As it came nearer though, the form slowly became definable. Sora laughed when he made out the form, wondering why it would have thought that he would have been confused.

"Roxas, of course I'm not confused." Sora said, laughing. "I might give you a hug or shake your hand or something, but right now I'm too tired and heavy."

Roxas smiled and nodded. "I understand, about you being too tired and all. To be honest with you though, I thought that you had completely forgotten about me."

Sora smiled and attempted to shake his head. "Are you kidding? Do you know how many times Organization XIII called me 'Roxas' while I was trying to rid of them and find my friends? No, after all of the things we went through, I haven't forgotten you."

The blonde boy smiled. "So then, you know why I'm here?"

Yet again, Sora smiled. "Yeah, you're part of my heart now. You made me whole after I became Heartless…or as close to a Heartless as I could get."

Roxas nodded. "That's true, I was half of your heart and I completed you, but there's a problem now."

"Problem?" Sora asked, not really minding, simply intent on listening.

"Yes, you see, you don't really need me anymore." Roxas explained. When Sora didn't make a move to speak or question, he continued. "You did need me at first, to complete your heart, but that was before Kairi returned to you. Some time after you were reunited, she began to complete your heart, and vice versa. Your heart became so full of her love for you, and your love for her, that I started to become squished out."

Sora frowned slightly in thought. This did seem to be a rather sticky problem. "So what's happening? What happens when you're squished out?"

Once again, Roxas paused for a long while before he began to speak. "What's happening…I'm being rejected by your heart, and your body. Does that make sense?"

Another long pause ensued before Sora answered. "So…you're going to be a person again. You're going to be your own person. But what about your heart?"

Roxas chuckled a little. "I think I can make my heart whole the same way you made yours whole."

If Sora had been able to move, he would have crossed his arms. "So, you think Naminé can make your heart whole again?"

"Yes," Roxas whispered, a little shyly this time.

"So that means…the same thing is happening to Kairi?" Sora asked.

Roxas shrugged. "Yes and no. Her heart is pushing Naminé away, just as yours is pushing me away, but it seems that her heart needs a bit more of a push before it can release Naminé."

Sora thought about what Roxas had said for a moment. "What kind of push?"

Roxas simply smiled. "You'll figure it out eventually, although I hope it won't take you too long."

Sora was going to question Roxas a bit further, but he felt himself slipping away. The darkness was fading, although the warmth was not. Roxas disappeared into the distance. Sora blinked, trying to bring him back, but as he blinked, he began to see other things instead.

Blue eyes looked around. He was in a room that had an orange glow to it, courtesy of the large window to the right, allowing the sun to come beaming inside. There was a nightstand directly to the left of the bed. There was a closet and a door on the left wall while there was a desk against the far wall and a dresser on the right wall to the right of the window. It was pretty much quiet, except for the sound of the train whistle and engine, chugging on by.

Sora attempted to sit up, but yet again, found that he was too heavy. He looked down and found the source of his burden. He saw Kairi, who appeared to have been sitting in a chair, but was now asleep with the upper half of her body draped over him.

Although Sora wanted to sit up, he didn't want to move Kairi. She looked so pretty right now, her head was resting on her arms and her short, red, hair fell about her shoulders and his chest. Sora slowly managed to worm one of his arms free from underneath her, bringing it up from under the cover to rest on Kairi's back.

_'…but it seems that her heart needs a bit more of a push…'_

Roxas's words echoed in Sora's mind. By the way he had made it sound, it was almost as if Sora was the cause and the push was the effect. What he would have to do though, he didn't have a clue. Perhaps Kairi would know, after all, it was her heart.

Sora had been unconsciously stroking Kairi's hair. She snuggled a bit at the contact, and slowly woke without Sora even realizing it. She recovered quickly and saw that he was in deep thought.

"Hey there," Kairi said cheerfully.

Sora jumped at that. He pulled himself so that he was sitting up and he examined Kairi. She had herself propped up on her elbows, smiling at him.

"Did I wake you?" Sora asked, a small grin on his face.

Kairi shrugged and sat up in her chair. "It doesn't matter."

Sora smiled before quickly glancing around the room. "So, where are we?"

"We're in Hayner's room. His parents are on vacation right now, so he volunteered his house for you to stay at while you were…out of it."

Sora nodded and looked down at his hands. "Yeah, that was kind of weird."

He wasn't even paying attention when Kairi pushed herself into his arms, hugging him tightly. He was a bit surprised, but quickly wrapped his arms around her.

"I was worried for you." Kairi said. "Since that wasn't the first time that it's happened and all."

Sora smiled and tightly hugged his girlfriend. "Don't worry, I've figured it all out."

Kairi looked up slowly into Sora's eyes. "What do you mean?"

Sora was about to explain, but the door burst open as Riku and Hayner walked inside.

"Hey Sora, it's about time you woke up." Riku said good naturedly. "You always were the center of attention."

"Come on now, Riku," Sora said, releasing Kairi, "don't tell me you weren't worried for me."

Riku crossed his arms and leaned against the closet doors. "Well…maybe a little bit."

"I think you might have fought a little too hard back there." Hayner commented playfully, coming to stand next to Kairi.

Sora shook his head. "That's not it…"

Yet again, Sora was interrupted before he could continue. Donald, Goofy, Pence, and Olette entered the room in that exact order. Donald and Goofy glomped Sora, cutting off his voice. Pence slapped Hayner on the back and said something about Sora finally waking up. Olette, on the other hand, stayed unusually still near the foot of the bed.

"We were worried about you!" Donald exclaimed.

"Yep, make sure to warn us before you do that next time." Goofy chuckled, good natured as always.

There was much commotion about. Sora and Kairi finally managed to calm everyone down so that Sora could talk. When he opened his mouth to speak though, it was seen that there was another problem.

"I'm sorry Sora," Olette said, "but…there's someone on the floor."

Everyone blinked, staring at the green eyed girl. Her eyes never left the place on the floor where she was staring though. Sora leaned to the right to look at the floor. Sure enough, lying on the floor next to the bed, was Roxas.

"Let's help him up." Sora said, sliding out of the bed.

Olette, Sora, and Riku picked Roxas up and set him in Hayner's bed in Sora's place. Everyone seemed to be thoroughly confused, except for Sora, and Kairi (who seemed to be only a little confused).

"What's he doing here?" Riku asked.

Sora took a deep breath. "It's a bit of a long story." He then went into full detail about what had happened when he had fallen unconscious and the conversation that had taken place in his heart. When he finished, Riku, Kairi, Donald, and Goofy all seemed to have understood fine, Hayner, Pence, and Olette, still looked absolutely confused.

The confusion visible on the faces of the three teens from Twilight Town confused Sora a bit, but it soon clicked in his head as to why that was.

"Hayner, Pence, Olette," Sora started, "I've got something to tell you."

Poor Sora was yet _again_ interrupted. This time, it was by Roxas. The boy stirred in the bed and slowly opened his eyes. He blinked his blue eyes, very much like Sora's, and looked around at everyone.

"Good morning, Roxas." Sora said cheerfully to the boy. "Or maybe it's afternoon now, but that doesn't matter."

Roxas sat up and smiled at Sora. "Hey," he glanced around at all of the others standing in the room. He smiled at Riku, Kairi, Donald, and Goofy, but when he saw his other three friends, his smile turned wide.

"Pence, Hayner, Olette, I'm so glad to see you guys!" Roxas exclaimed.

The three looked at each other with unease. Roxas didn't seem to notice much though.

"What's wrong, you aren't mad at me, are you?" Roxas questioned humorously.

Sora frowned and put a hand on Roxas's shoulder. "Roxas, I have something to tell you, and the other three too."

Roxas's smile faltered and his face grew hot, he knew this wouldn't be good. "What is it?"

Sora shifted a bit uncomfortably and took his hand off of Roxas's shoulder. "The Twilight Town that you lived in, the people you met, it was all a digital reflection of a real world."

Roxas stared a bit. "I don't understand."

"You see," Sora started, "when you became a Nobody, you didn't remember being whole, like all of the other Nobodies did. So what happened was, Ansem the wise and Naminé put you in a fake Twilight Town and they sent you your memories digitally, courtesy of Naminé, that way you could remember what is was like before you were a Nobody."

Understanding dawned upon Roxas. "So then…my friends, they don't remember me?"

Sora shook his head sadly. "No, but you can make new memories with them. Although those weren't real people at the other Twilight Town, they _were_ reflections of real people with real hearts. I'm sure if they were your friends then, they'll be your friends now." Sora looked up at Hayner, Pence, and Olette. "Right?"

The three nodded slowly.

"Sure," Hayner said, "we might not remember you, but if we were friends with you in the other world, we're bound to be friends here."

Roxas smiled and nodded. "You were my best friend, you know." He told Hayner, and then looked at the other two. "You all were. We were saving money during summer vacation to buy tickets to go to the beach, but it was stolen."

Olette frowned at the last comment, and then tried to cheer the boy up. "We didn't happen to eat sea-salt ice cream, did we?"

Roxas quickly looked up to meet her eyes. "Yeah," he laughed, "we ate it all the time."

"And did we play Struggle often?" Pence asked.

Roxas nodded. "Yeah, Hayner and I were the only ones that actually entered the competitions though. In the last competition there was, I beat Setzer!"

"You're serious." Olette said in disbelief.

"Yeah," Roxas nodded proudly, "he was a bit of a freak though."

At this point, Riku and Sora sent knowing glances at Kairi, who simply shrugged.

"He was trying to bribe me into loosing, I turned him down though. When I won the trophy, I passed out the little gems on it to everyone as a symbol of our friendship." Roxas reached into his pocket, searching. "I think I might still have mine."

Sure enough, Roxas pulled out a blue colored crystal that sparkled in the golden sunlight entering the room. Sora got excited as soon as he saw it.

"Oh, I've got one too. Let me see if I brought it!" Sora turned in a circle, searching for his bag. Riku grabbed it from against the wall and tossed it at Sora, who barely managed to catch it. As soon as he had it though, he went digging through it like crazy.

"So," Hayner started, "who else did you fight in the championship?"

Roxas's eyes lit up in anticipation of telling the story. "Well, first I fought you. You were pretty tough. We were the first match of the whole thing. Then, Vivi fought against Seifer, but Vivi was acting weird, he wasn't himself. After that, I fought Vivi and won, and then I fought Setzer."

"Awesome," Pence commented, "it sounds like it was a pretty fun match."

"Yeah," Roxas trailed, thinking about the battle with Axle afterward that nobody saw, "it was pretty fun. Can you guess what we did afterward?"

The three friends looked back and forth at each other before shrugging.

"We bought sea-salt ice cream to celebrate and we ate it on top of the clock tower." Roxas said cheerfully.

"I found it!"

Everyone's attention turned to Sora. Donald, Goofy, Riku, and Kairi had all been pretty silent up until this point, just watching everything unfold between old, and now, new friends.

Sora held up his own blue crystal, identical to Roxas's, for everyone to see. As Sora and Roxas held up their crystals, they looked at each other and a bit of nostalgia filled them both, the want to go back to something that they couldn't quite remember. Although, for Sora, it was simply a memory of nostalgia, something that did not grip his heart, whereas for Roxas, it was. He felt something akin to pain fill him. Perhaps it was the fact that he didn't have real memories. Hopefully that would change though, and soon.

"Now what?" Goofy asked curiously.

Sora opened his mouth to speak, but stopped. He scratched the back of his head. "I'm not sure."

There was a silence in the room for a little while. It seemed that everyone forgot what they were doing. Roxas stared at his crystal, sitting up in the bed. Riku leaned against the closet doors while Kairi stood next to him. Hayner and Pence were directly to the left of Roxas while Donald, Goofy, and Olette were at the foot of the bed. Sora was standing to the right of Roxas, near the window.

"Sora," Riku started, "weren't you going to ask Donald and Goofy something earlier?"

Sora nodded. "Yeah, I remember now, I was going to ask you two if you had gotten a hold of the king."

Donald nodded. "Yep, we sure did. He told us to just fight off any Nobodies that come around for right now. He said he would come over here to Twilight Town in a little while to give us more information."

Sora nodded. "So all we have to do for now is fight the Nobodies."

Roxas looked up at Sora. "Remember what I need from you, Sora."

Sora nodded. "Don't worry, I won't forget."

While they said the latter statements, Kairi clasped her hands over her heart. She wondered if she would go into a bit of an epilepsy phase like Sora had. It was a little weird to think about, but if it would help Roxas complete his heart, then she would gladly go through it.

Kairi looked up at Sora talking to everyone. Her heart immediately swelled. If it would make him happy, she would do it. Just to see that smile on his face that he so often showed, she couldn't get enough of it. Her thoughts were interrupted when Sora asked the time.

"It's six thirty in the evening, Sora." Riku replied.

"Really," Sora said. It was hard to believe that they had gone to school earlier that day.

"Who wants to have dinner at my house?" Olette asked.

"Yeah," Pence said immediately, "your mom's cooking is the best."

The gang from Destiny Islands looked at each other and shrugged. They hadn't noticed it before, but they were so hungry at this point that it didn't matter what they ate. They hadn't had a bite for six and a half hours!

Hayner and Pence pulled Roxas out of bed and they all followed Olette to her house. Her mom, who seemed to be an older version of Olette, seemed thrilled that she could cook for so many people. Olette even helped her make dinner.

Dinner went by fast and the evening died down into night. All through it though, our favorite blue eyed blonde, Roxas, felt extremely at home. It was as if nothing had changed from before, and he was glad for it. He had been a bit shy at first, but his boldness soon returned to him as the evening had gone down.

When all was said and done, Donald and Goofy returned to the gummi ship to sleep. Riku and Sora went to Pence's house and Roxas went over to Hayner's while Kairi stayed at Olette's.

Riku, Sora, and Pence camped out in his living room in sleeping bags. Sora lay awake, facing the ceiling with his arms behind his head. He was glad to see that Roxas was happy. Knowing that someone who was a part of him was happy made him happy. He was also glad that he wouldn't be fainting any longer, but nobody needed to know that.

Glancing out the window, Sora was able to see the stars extremely clearly. He remembered being back in Traverse Town and meeting everyone. He couldn't help but wonder how the place was doing now. It made him feel a bit sad to know that he might not ever see the place again. After all, the friends who had once lived there had returned to their original home, the Radiant Garden, formerly known as Hollow Bastion.

Thinking about the Radiant Garden then led to thinking about the people living there. He thought about Leon, Tron, Aerith, Yuffie, Tifa, Merlin, Cloud, and everyone in the Hundred Acre Wood. Sora wondered if Cloud had really been able to make peace with himself. He also wondered how far the committee had managed to go on rebuilding the place. Perhaps when they were done protecting Twilight Town, they could go back and visit on the way home to the island.

VVV

VictorianPearl: Alright, yet another chapter. I feel like I'm on a roll. I just manage to type out a whole bunch of work whenever I get on the computer. It's pretty cool. I'm having lots of fun with this fiction, and I hope the rest of you are too, it's very refreshing. Anyway, R&R and tell me what you think!


	4. Solar Flare

VictorianPearl: Yet another addition to the story

VictorianPearl: Yet another addition to the story. I feel so good about this one, it's coming out smoothly. Due to the lack of action in the previous chapter, I will be adding some action in this chapter. Yay for action!

**Golden Rays**

**Chapter 4: Solar Flare**

The morning came and a new day started. Our heroes awoke and gathered at Olette's house to enjoy a wonderfully made breakfast. It was after breakfast that things immediately began to pick up speed. Unfortunately, the teens from Twilight Town had to go to school. As much as they would have liked to have made it avoidable, it wasn't. The teens from Destiny Islands, Roxas, and the two subjects of King Mickey understood and knew that they would have no trouble handling things by themselves for the first half of the day.

"So, Roxas, why aren't you going to school?" Sora questioned as they walked through the Tram Common on their way to the gummi ship.

"Well, since I technically haven't existed until yesterday, I'm not enrolled in the school." Roxas said, a bit too cheerfully than was to be expected of him.

"Do you plan on going to school here?" Kairi asked.

Roxas shrugged. "Maybe, or maybe I'll go someplace else."

The five who were listening shrugged at his answer. What he wasn't saying, was that he wanted to hear what Naminé wanted to do. He was a bit too shy when it came to that subject though, so he left his answer to be a bit of an enigma.

The gang reached the Woods and cautiously entered. Everyone summoned their weapon, including Roxas with his Keyblade, and held it up in a ready stance. Sora and Riku lead the group, followed by Roxas and Kairi, and then Donald and Goofy picking up the rear. As soon as they exited the Woods and came out into the open, they all breathed a sigh of relief. Now that they were out in front of the gummi ship in the golden sun, it didn't seem that there was any reason to worry.

"I'm glad there was nothing to worry about in there." Sora said, putting his hands behind his head.

"Don't relax yet, Sora." Riku warned in his usual serious manner.

Sora shrugged and turned to Donald and Goofy. "So now what do we do?"

Roxas came over to stand next to Donald and Goofy. "I have a proposition."

Everyone turned to listen to the blonde.

"You said that there was another Twilight Town, right?" Roxas asked.

Sora frowned slightly. "Yeah, I did say that."

"So…can we still get to it?" Roxas asked slowly.

"You can still get to it." Riku answered. "I worked with Ansem the Wise when he was creating the world in order for you to retrieve your memories. If you're thinking of going back though, I would advise that you did not."

"Why not?" Roxas asked, sadness creeping into his voice.

Riku sighed, feeling slight pity for the boy who was so much like his best friend. "For one thing, it's not even real. There are limits to the world. Do you remember when you tried to go to the beach? That was me that stole your money. We, myself and Ansem the Wise, hadn't yet created a beach to go to, so we had to get rid of your capability to go there so that we could create one."

Roxas's eyes widened significantly. "That was you!"

Riku shrugged. "Yeah, sorry about that, but it would have been more unfortunate to find that you couldn't even get to the beach."

Roxas lowered his head. "It's alright. I actually didn't really want to go back. I wanted to see if there was a way that we could destroy it."

At this mention, everyone tensed up significantly. They all glanced at each other uneasily. Roxas didn't seem to notice why they were so tense about it.

"I'm not sure if we can do that." Donald told him.

Goofy nodded in agreement. "If we destroy the digital Twilight Town, then we destroy one of the ways to get to The World That Never Was. I'm not so sure if we want to do that."

"How can we find out?" Roxas asked.

"We'll have to ask the king." Donald replied.

Roxas shifted a little where he was standing. He looked around at everyone, almost as if he had a question to ask, but was afraid to ask it.

"Roxas, what's wrong?" Kairi asked. "You can talk to us."

Roxas shifted again, and then directed his glance to the floor. "I would like to at least see _my_ Twilight Town one last time. Just as a goodbye of sorts."

"Roxas, it's your decision to do what you want." Sora said. "We might be able to stop you from destroying the place, but we can't stop you from going there, even though Riku suggested that you not."

That earned a nod from Roxas. After hearing Sora's consent, he didn't feel so bad about it any more. He wasn't quite sure why, but going back sort of felt…_wrong_. It was as if he didn't belong there, even though that's where his most precious memories came from. It was as if his heart desperately wanted to go back, but at the same time, it knew that it was impossible to do so, not to mention, pointless.

"Do you want to go alone?" Sora asked.

This startled Roxas out of his thoughts, causing him to look up to where Sora was. "Yeah, I don't want anyone else to have to see any more than the computer room that I broke."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Kairi asked in a cheerful manner. "Let's go."

"Yeah," Sora said, running up to walk next to Kairi as she began to head for the Old Mansion.

"Make sure to be ready for Nobodies, you two." Riku said as he began to walk after them.

Donald, Goofy, and Roxas followed behind the three teens. They walked up to the Old Mansion doors. Sora looked back with a smile before pushing the doors wide open. The six of them entered slowly, looking around the dusty place.

Kairi and Sora walked forward into the middle of the foyer.

"It looks like it was very beautiful at one point." Kairi said before turning to Roxas. "Do you know who used to live here?"

"There was a story about it in the other Twilight Town," Roxas said, meeting her eyes, "but I'm not sure that that was even true."

Kairi was about to question him, but a dark aura went flying past her. Riku had his Soul Eater out and ready for action.

"Get ready you guys." Riku said, pointing behind Kairi towards the stairways.

Kairi turned to look behind her. Sure enough, there were Nobodies appearing, lots of Nobodies. Kairi and Sora immediately summoned up their Keyblades. They looked at each other and nodded. As they rushed toward the Nobodies, a blizzaga spell went flying past them. Donald was summoning up a storm with his staff and Goofy was bashing with his shield.

Roxas summoned his Keyblade and Oathkeeper. He remembered the time he had fought the Nobodies in that dark cathedral; he wasn't sure if it had been a dream or not. He went after the more common Nobodies standing at the bottom of the left stairwell. He brought the duel Keyblades up and began swinging.

The Nobodies bent their bodies, flexing around in attempt to avoid Roxas's attacks. They could not though. Roxas used his reverse move, which was very affective, thanks to his skateboarding, to swing around and hit the Nobodies from behind. He slashed out and brought the Keyblades in a circular motion around his body, cutting any enemy that was a little too near.

Somehow, although none were sure how, Riku had managed to work his way to the top of the staircase. He was sending out an onslaught of dark auras in every direction. He battled with one samurai Nobody in front of him. He ran forward and slashed his Soul Eater at it as he ran past, dissipating it instantly. He then swung around and caught the Nobody that was behind him, sending it flying backward. A shot of the dark aura was enough to vanquish it.

"Sora," Donald shouted, sending Sora a potion.

Sora gave Donald thumbs up in thanks before attacking a Nobody that was coming up behind Kairi. He managed to rid the last few Nobodies with some firaga spells before the foyer was left empty.

"So," Riku started, standing at the top of the right stairwell, "that's one way to start off your morning."

"You're telling me." Kairi commented, sending away her Keyblade.

Everyone made their way up the stairs to join Riku. They then turned to the right and entered the library door. To all of their surprise though, the library was…a library.

"Wasn't there a computer room here?" Goofy asked.

"Yeah," Roxas said, walking to the middle of the room, "it's been closed back up."

He dropped to the ground and put his ear against the floor, listening for the buzz of the computer. He then knocked on the ground, seeing where it was hollow and where the staircase would be.

"The last time I was here," Roxas started, "there was a table in the middle of the room with a weird marking in it…or did Naminé put the marking there? Anyway, I completed the marking using Naminé's sketchbook and it caused the floor to open up and slide away, gaining access to the computer room and the room with the pods."

"Oh yeah…" Sora trailed. He grabbed Donald and Goofy in a headlock, one with each arm. "We slept down there for a really long time, didn't we? I almost forgot."

"How could you?" Donald questioned seriously.

"But we weren't awake, Donald, hyuck." Goofy said.

Sora released the two from their headlocks and proceeded to the middle of the room with Roxas. He turned about, taking in the view of the whole room.

"I don't think we'll have much luck." Riku commented, darkly as usually managed to do. "If Naminé's drawing activated some sort of spell to open the floor, then we'll either need to get Naminé back or get someone else who knows the spell."

"Don't you know the spell, Riku?" Kairi asked.

Riku shook his head and leaned back against the bookcase. "Nope, I was the one who had the secret knock; DiZ was the one who opened the door to me."

"DiZ…that sounds strangely familiar." Roxas said, his eyes becoming distant.

"Also known as Ansem the Wise," Riku replied.

"Yeah…if he made my Twilight Town, and according to you," Roxas looked at Riku, "he had access to the computer room, couldn't we just ask him?"

The room became uncomfortable as everyone shifted and averted their gaze. Roxas didn't know what was going on, but intuition told him it wasn't good.

"Roxas," Sora started, "how much do you know about what happened in The World That Never Was?"

"I know that Kingdom Hearts exploded and the hearts were released, Xemnas was finally defeated by you, and then I joined with you to become whole." Roxas said, a blank look on his face.

Sora scratched behind his head. "Well, when Kingdom Hearts exploded, that was the doing of Ansem the Wise because he had built this machine to process all the hearts. I don't think it was actually supposed to explode. Anyway, when he found out that it was going to explode, he sacrificed himself to keep the machine running, that way Kingdom Hearts would be destroyed and his sins would be atoned for…in his mind, anyway."

"So that means…" Roxas trailed.

"Ansem the wise went down with Kingdom Hearts." Riku said bluntly. "He can no longer help us."

Roxas made an "oh" with his mouth and looked at the ground. He kicked the ground lightly in what might have been a bored manner if not for the current situation. It seemed that nobody knew what to say now.

Kairi watched Roxas's forlorn face. She felt so sad because he felt so lost. A part of him was Sora, so in a way, she felt like she was automatically bound to him. She hoped that she could bring Naminé out soon, but from what she had been told, it seemed as if Sora was that one that would cause that event to happen. She wanted desperately to say something soothing, but couldn't think of anything.

"So…now what?" Roxas asked, looking at his friends.

Sora's face brightened. "I have something that'll cheer us up and kill time until school gets out."

"Working on the gummi ship?" Donald asked.

"Struggle!"

Everyone fell over anime style as Sora pumped his fist into the air in anticipation. His grin got wide and his eyes closed. Yep, there was no talking Sora out of this one. But we can always rely on one certain party member to bring reality back onto the situation.

"Sora, if school's not out, then there's nobody to fight because they're in school." Riku said.

Sora faltered and his face gained realization. He suddenly got a crafty look in his eyes. "Twilight Town is in school, but _we're_ not."

VVV

"I can't believe you talked me into this."

Riku and Sora were on the Struggle platform in the, pretty much deserted, Sandlot. Kairi, Roxas, Donald and Goofy were at the edge of the platform, waiting for the ultimate battle to begin! There were a few passerby's wondering what the heck a bunch of kids, a duck and a dog were doing out of school and in the Sandlot.

"Don't let the tension get to you!" Sora called out, gripping the Struggle bat in his ever moving hands.

"I could say the same for you." Riku said, slightly amused, but feeling slightly lame at the same time over a small little match.

"What's the bargaining?" Sora asked.

Riku put his hand to his chin in thought. "How about, whoever looses has to make dessert for everyone tonight."

"Chocolate milkshakes with crushed Oreos and whipped cream on top?"

"Deal."

Kairi got up onto the edge of the stage and held out a handkerchief. "This Struggle battle will be between Riku and Sora from Destiny Islands. The person who obtains the most orbs at the end of one minute is the winner. The looser must make chocolate milkshakes for dessert tonight." She raised the kerchief above her head. "Struggle commence!"

Kairi threw her handkerchief between Sora and Riku, signaling the start. She then turned to run and jump off the stage. Roxas had a stopwatch on his watch that was hidden under his checkered wristlet and was keeping track of the time. Donald had put up a magical transparent barrier around the stage to keep the orbs inside of the Struggle area.

"Bring it on!" Sora cried, running toward Riku.

Sora lunged toward Riku, who jumped back. Sora closed in to attack but Riku managed to block. He twisted Sora's arm and hit him in the side. Blue orbs went crazy. Sora jumped back and caught as many of the fallen orbs as he could. He then jumped into the air, performed an aerial, and hit Riku in his abdomen.

The red orbs scattered this time and both team members did their best to pick up as many as possible. There were 40 seconds left. Riku and Sora began hitting each other with all the energy they had. Riku hit Sora, who dropped and took out Riku's legs. They were crawling along the ground grabbing orbs. Riku tackled Sora while he was still on the ground and more orbs went bouncing everywhere. Sora propped his feet under Riku and pushed him away, sending red orbs in the fray.

With only ten seconds left, both boys were now attacking so fast that their arms and Struggle bats appeared to be blurs of skin and blue. There seemed to be an entourage of orbs coloring the sky and making clicking noises as they hit the ground.

"Time's up!" Roxas called, signaling the end of the match.

"Hold still." Goofy said. He jumped up onto the platform as Donald vanquished the barrier and collected all of the excess orbs on the ground and put them in a small bucket that had been near the platform.

Donald took all of Riku's orbs and counted them while Kairi took Sora's and counted. After a few moments of counting, the final conclusion was about to be taken.

"Donald, tell us how many orbs Riku managed to have at the end of the Struggle." Roxas said.

"He had fifty." Donald replied.

"Kairi, how many orbs did Sora manage to have at the end of the Struggle?"

"He also had fifty."

Riku and Sora gaped at each other. "No way!" They said in unison.

"It's true." Goofy said from the sidelines. There are fifty extra orbs over here, which means that both of your orbs put together are 150."

"I think you guys should re-count." Riku suggested.

Donald, Kairi, and Goofy recounted, but the numbers remained the same. Riku and Sora looked at each other wearily.

"So then…who has to make the milk shakes?" Sora asked.

"In the event of a tie, _both_ competitors must make milkshakes for dessert." Roxas said. "And make sure that you add extra chocolate syrup!"

Sora and Riku looked blankly at each other before staring at Roxas.

"It's a deal." Riku said. He went over to Sora and shook his hand. Sora didn't look exactly convinced about the outcome, but shook Riku's hand all the same.

"Hey guys, it's almost time for school to get out." Roxas announced. "Let's go meet the others at the gates."

If there had been something better to do, they might have done it, but there wasn't, so they didn't. They all walked over to the Central Station and waited outside for Hayner, Pence, and Olette to get back from school. Apparently, the train had to be taken to get to school, but it only took about five minutes to go one way.

The six friends sat on the ledge of the stone wall that surrounded the outside of the Central Station. The sun was covered by clouds, giving the town the appearance that it was much later than it seemed to be. Eventually, a train whistle was heard in the distance. Within a minute, the train pulled up to the station and all of the passengers were let out.

Hayner, Pence, and Olette all came out of the sliding doors of the station with a handful of other kids who had also gone to school. They wore their uniforms, which looked very similar to the uniforms on Destiny Islands. The only difference was that they were green plaid, not blue.

Sora and Roxas waved to the three who had gotten out of school. They spotted the friends sitting on the wall and instantly came over to join them.

"Hello, how was school." Kairi asked Olette.

"Not too bad, but it was the same old same old." Olette replied.

"So, did you guys manage to figure out anything new today?" Hayner asked. "Anything with the Nobodies...?"

"Not really," Sora replied.

"That's too bad." Pence said.

"But, on the bright side, Sora and Riku get to make us dessert tonight, hyuck." Goofy inserted.

The three looked at Goofy curiously.

"You don't want to know." Riku replied. "Anyway, we need to contact someone with magic. Do you think we can get a hold of Merlin, Sora?"

"Why do you guys need magic?" Hayner asked.

"There's a computer room underneath the library in the Old Mansion." Kairi replied. "There is a certain spell needed in order to open it."

"Hey, I know a place where there's lots of magic." Roxas said. "We can get on that magic train. It's supposed to go somewhere magic, right?"

"Yeah," Sora, Donald, and Goofy said together.

"That's where Yen Sid lives." Donald said.

"Then it's settled." Sora said. "Let's go see Yen Sid."

VVV

VictorianPearl: Yay, end of chapter four. Please people, give me some feedback! Thanks to all of you who did review, you made me happy. :D The next chapter may take a little more than a week to get up because I've got a term paper coming up that I need to work on. I'll try my best!


	5. Dawning

VictorianPearl: The next chapter is up

VictorianPearl: The next chapter is up! I hope you enjoy it immensely.

**Golden Rays**

**Chapter 5**

**Dawning**

At the Central Station, the group had already boarded the train. As soon as Riku, who was at the back of the group, stepped onto the train, the doors closed behind him. Each person took his or her respective seats on either side of the car. Everyone had barely taken a seat when the train lurched forward toward its destination.

Kairi and Roxas stared out the window in awe as the train passed right through the station walls to go through its journey. The train flew on the tracks through the Sunset district before it warped into what appeared to be outer space.

"What's happening?" Olette cried, gripping the top of her seat as she looked out the window.

"We're traveling to the tower." Sora said simply, assuming that everyone would understand.

"I feel so relieved to know that." Hayner said sarcastically. Sora didn't seem to notice much though.

"It's like…" Kairi trailed, thinking of that day about two years ago when she and Sora were separated from each other.

"Like what?" Pence asked curiously, focusing his camera to take some snap shots of the view.

"Nothing," Kairi replied.

Sora, who was sitting on Kairi's left, looked at her strangely.

"Are you alright?" He asked her gently.

Kairi quickly looked up to meet his eyes. "Of course, I'm just ready to get back onto the regular land."

Sora smiled and nodded. "Don't worry, it's not too much further."

Kairi smiled back. She was glad that he didn't question her further. It wasn't necessarily a big deal, thinking about that certain day, but it was uncomfortable to think about. Instead of being able to recall the memory like any other, she always felt the same sharp pain that she had felt that very day. It was as if the pain of the memory never ebbed away. Even though Sora was back now and everything was pretty much normal, the memory still hurt to think about.

"We're coming into the stop." Donald said.

Kairi jumped inside. She looked out the window to see a large tower coming in closer. She shook her head and told herself to forget it. It was time to worry about what was important, getting access to that computer room.

The train pulled to a stop outside of a grassy walkway. The steam blew and the doors opened to let the passengers out. Sora, Donald, and Goofy got out first, followed by Kairi, Roxas, and Riku with Olette, Hayner, and Pence coming out last. When they exited, the doors to the train shut, but it remained at its stopped position.

The first six leaders of the group summoned their weapons. They slowly advanced toward the large entrance.

"Just to warn you guys, there are a lot of stairs." Sora said.

They passed through the doors to come into the entrance hall. There was an eerie tune floating through the air. The newcomers to the tower glanced unsurely at the warp hole that the stairs lead up to.

"This place is kind of creepy." Riku commented.

"That's because it hasn't been remodeled for 300 years!" Donald replied.

Sora began to walk casually up the stairs. Riku ran to catch up to him. As Kairi and Roxas advanced up the stairs as well, Donald and Goofy stayed by the other three for protection purposes. They advanced through the warp hole to a set of stairs leading steeply upward.

"If I remember correctly, the Nobodies should appear right about…now!" Sora said. Sure enough, as soon as he had gotten about half way up the stairs, a group of Nobodies surrounded him.

Roxas summoned up his duel keyblades. He ran past Sora and slashed through the Nobodies. He paused a few feet up the stairs. The Nobodies wavered a moment before disappearing. Roxas looked back with a little smirk on his face.

"You sure catch on fast." Sora said, smiling. "Well, now that that's over, let us continue.

Hayner, Pence, and Olette were still glancing at each other with unsure looks plastered on their faces. Hayner shrugged and shoved the other two up the stairs behind Donald and Goofy.

This time, when everyone went through the warp hole, they ended up in a circular room. They were facing a door with an arrow pointing up.

"Three guesses where we need to go next." Riku said.

"Be careful, Sora. This is where all the Nobodies come." Goofy warned, standing in front of the three keyblade-less teens with his shield before him.

"Don't worry about a thing, I remember this place quite well." Sora assured.

Riku put his hand on Sora's shoulder. Sora understood the unspoken request and let Riku walk forward to the middle of the circular room.

"What's he doing?" Kairi asked from behind Sora, gently taking his hand.

"I think he wants to fight this one alone." Sora said.

Riku paused in the middle of the room. The Nobodies dropped from the sky, or wherever it was they dropped from, to surround Riku. There were three dancers and two assassins ready for action. Riku didn't look too worried, he simply summoned his weapon and held it above him.

The dancers flew at Riku first and he shot them with a dark aura, sending them waving back to the edge of the room. The assassins attacked next. Riku set up a dark shield, deflecting the attacks sent at him. He lunged at the first assassin, which managed to parry his attack. He then sent a dark aura behind him as the other assassin began to sneak up on him.

"Aren't we going to help him?" Roxas asked.

"Na, it would annoy him to know that his battle was being interfered with." Sora said, waving his hand in a _this-is-the-usual-Riku _type of manner.

When Roxas turned his attention back to the battle, one of the assassins had been dissipated along with one of the dancers. Riku was sending more dark magical attacks at the dancers to keep them at bay. He then bent his knees and lunged at the remaining assassin, piercing its abdomen and destroying it. He kept flying forward, he put his hand to the ground and did a front flip back onto his feet. Two more dark auras at each of the dancers and Riku had won.

"Yeah Riku!" Kairi cheered.

Riku looked back with a satisfied look on his face. "Alright, it's safe to advance."

"You are such a show off." Sora laughed, walking forward, nonetheless.

"How can you accuse me of showing off when_ you're_ the one who made an appearance in different worlds to save everyone?"

"It was for the good of the universe!" Sora said with wide eyes.

"Whatever, you're just making up excuses."

Sora and Riku "argued" some more as the gang continued through the door with the arrow pointing upward. They reached yet another flight of stairs leading upward, but this time, they twisted around in a half spiral. On this flight, Sora and Kairi lead the way, ready for action.

"Don't worry Kairi, I'll protect you." Sora said reassuringly.

"You're so cliché, Sora…but so sweet anyway." Kairi replied.

Sora was so busy smiling and blushing that he almost got pummeled by a creeper Nobody which came flying at him. Kairi was quick though, and managed to block it from its path.

"Wow, thanks Kairi!" Sora said, his blue eyes focusing on her keyblade.

"Any time, Sora, any time." She said, swinging at the creeper again.

"Be more careful Sora." Donald yelled, sending a blizzaga spell at one of the two larger berserker Nobodies.

"Dark aura!" Riku called, assaulting the larger and more foreboding Nobodies.

Roxas took on one of the Berserkers with Sora. Roxas blocked the heavy attacks with his duel keyblades while Sora attacked from the sides. Kairi, Donald, and Goofy took care of the smaller, but larger in number, creepers. Donald made sure to stay near the three teens without weapons while using magical attacks from afar. Goofy had his shield going crazy as he swung it like a boomerang at his enemies.

Sora uses a firaga spell to finish off the first berserker before he and Roxas went to help Riku with the last one. Kairi hurtled her keyblade through the air at the last creeper, leaving only the berserker left standing. The large Nobody swung at Riku. Riku, in turn, used his dark shield, causing the blade to deflect and go flying out of the large enemy's hands. With this opportunity, the three boys lunged forward with their weapons, lodging them into the Nobody. With that finishing move, the stairs were cleared of enemies and it was safe to finish the climb to the next warp hole.

"Sora," Hayner said from the back of the group as they continued up the half spiral stare case. "About what you said earlier, how many more levels are left?"

"I'm not sure I remember." Sora said. "Do you guys know?" He looked over his shoulder at Donald and Goofy.

"Sorry Sora, we don't remember either." Goofy said apologetically.

Sora shrugged and sent Hayner a smile. "Oh well, it can't be too much further."

Although it probably wasn't that much further, it sure as heck seemed like it, especially to Hayner, Pence, and Olette. The three, pretty much defenseless, teens were completely on edge. Even though Donald and Goofy were excellent body guards, if you will, there were still just a few too many close calls for their liking.

Even though the last circular that they cleared had to have only been their third, it seemed like it had been a while. All of this constant fighting had gone slightly out of the teens' systems, but it was coming back to them. Roxas had his hands on his knees. He had just finished off yet _another_ berserker.

"If I have to fight one more of those things I'm going to throw myself down these stairs." Roxas said.

"Come on, it could have been worse." Sora said, thinking of the time when he had to demolish 1,000 heartless at the Crystal Fissure.

"Speak for yourself." Roxas said, his Twilight Town friends nodding eagerly behind him.

"Okay, but I'm sure that this is the last room _this time_." Sora said, scratching the back of his head.

"That's what you said last time." Olette commented.

But this time, it really was the last time. Sora opened the door and it did not lead to another staircase. The room they walked into was circular, but there were no Nobodies. This room seemed to be an office and was obviously occupied by someone with magical talents. There was a large desk and chair in the center of the room. There was a moon shaped window accompanied by other star shaped windows, giving a great view of the beginning of the night sky.

"Woh," Roxas said, gazing around the room. "This place keeps getting weirder."

"Yen Sid is a great magician, we never said he was a great designer." Donald replied.

"So, where is Yen Sid?" Riku asked touring around the room.

"I dunno," Sora replied, "maybe he's in a different room."

"Lead the way, Sora." Kairi encouraged.

Sora nodded and took the lead into the next room. When they entered, they were met with three surprised shrieks. This room was occupied, but not with Yen Sid.

"Oh my goodness, it's Sora!"

In the room were three fairies. One was in red, one in green, and the last one, who had spoken, was in blue. Once they had glanced at Sora, they flew up to him and started inspecting him.

"It's been a while since we've last seen you." The red fairy said, fluttering about him.

"How are the clothes we made you?" The green one asked.

"Have you been taking good care of yourself?" Asked the blue fairy.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," Sora laughed, waving his hands.

The three fairies nodded in approval and landed in front of the group, standing next to each other.

"Guys, there are the three good fairies, Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather." Sora said, pointing to the red, green, and blue fairies respectively.

"Fairies, these are my friends Kairi, Riku, Roxas, Donald, Goofy, Hayner, Pence, and Olette." Sora introduced his friends.

"It's so nice to meet you." Flora said.

"It's too bad Aurora isn't here. She would have loved to meet you all." Merryweather commented.

The teens from Twilight Town all looked rather confused. Sora fixed that with a, "I'll tell you later." before continuing with the fairies.

"Excuse me, we were wondering if you know where Yen Sid is." Kairi explained from beside Sora.

"Oh, he's here, he's just doing some magical business, if you will, at the moment." Fauna said.

"Would it be too much trouble to speak to him right now?" Riku asked.

"Why yes dear, we can summon him right now." Flora said. "He won't mind, he needs something beside business to occupy his mind. I'm always telling him, aren't I, ladies?"

Merryweather rolled her eyes and Fauna just smiled. The three good fairies got into a small circle.

"Wands together now." Flora said. The three fairies followed her command and touched the tips of their wands together. A red, blue, and green color emerged from each of the respective wands and formed a sparkling orb. The light burst like a fire cracked and the ritual was over.

"He should be here any minute." Fauna said.

Just as she finished her sentence, there was a flash of bright light as Yen Sid teleported into the room to stand behind the three fairies.

"Ah, I see why you three called me." Yen Sid said, looking over the group before him. "Sora, I never got to tell you that I had my full confidence in your ability to diminish the heartless. It seems like my proposition proved right, like I knew it would."

"It was nothing." Sora said, putting his hands behind his head.

In the background, Hayner, Pence and Olette were staring at Donald and Goofy who had both bowed to Yen Sid and were appearing very gracious.

"Now, what have you all come here for?" Yen Sid asked. "I doubt that it was to pay a visit, purely."

"You're right," Sora said, "we've come to get a spell from you, if you are able to give it."

"What kind of spell do you speak of?" Yen Sid questioned.

"A girl named Naminé, she created a spell that opened up a secret door." Roxas said, stepping forward. "It was a spell used in the Old Mansion in Twilight Town to get to the computer room."

"Ah, yes, I know of what you speak." Yen Sid replied, putting the tips of his fingers together.

"You…do?" Roxas asked. He had not really expected the wizard to have any idea of what they were talking about.

"Yes, I'm the one who gave it to her." Yen Sid said.

"You met Naminé?" Roxas said, his voice getting unconsciously louder. "When did you meet her?"

"It was a long while ago. She came to me on an errand from a friend of mine asking for the spell. I made it especially for her purposes." Yen Sid explained.

"Could you give it to us?" Sora asked bluntly.

"Yes, I could. I would need to know the manner of which you plan to use this spell I am to give you, for you see, it is a very powerful gate scroll that seals an invisible lock. Actually, Sora, you don't even need my spell, you could have unlocked it with your keyblade, which is the only thing, save the spell itself, which could open the door."

The mouths of everyone in the group dropped. Yen Sid and the three fairies chuckled at this.

"So, we came all this way for nothing?" Sora asked.

"No, not for nothing," Yen Sid replied. He opened his hand and a bright light appeared. When it faded, there was a small scroll in his hand. "Take this anyway, because you're not the only one who might need it."

Yen Sid nodded toward everyone behind Sora. Sora nodded in understanding and took the scroll.

"Thank you Yen Sid." Sora said.

Yen Sid nodded. "Come back any time if you should need more help with anything. I am already quite aware of your present mission which has been sent to you by King Mickey."

"Thanks," Sora said, smiling.

VVV

"How are those milk shakes coming along?"

"Calm down, they'll be ready soon enough!"

It was later that evening and everyone was gathered at Hayner's house. Sora and Riku were in the kitchen while everyone was in the living room. Kairi would occasionally go in and tease Sora while everyone else was playing on the Dance Dance Revolution pad in the living room.

"Sora, hand me the whipped cream." Riku commanded.

"Strawberry or regular?"

"Both,"

Sora tossed both of the whipped creams to his best friend from the fridge. There were nine large glasses on the counter filled most of the way up with vanilla and Oreo milk shakes. Once Riku had caught both of the whipped creams, he layered them on to each glass.

"Toss me the chocolate syrup."

"One chocolate syrup, coming right up!"

Riku caught the syrup and proceeded to zigzag the tops of the whipped cream with the chocolate. Once he was done, Sora came by with the spoons, sticking them into each of the glasses.

"I think we did a pretty good job, if I do say so myself." Sora said proudly.

"Why don't we just take our own glasses and see how long it takes everyone else to notice that we're done?" Riku suggested.

"Okay,"

Sora and Riku sat at the table in the kitchen, which had a good view of the living room. They slurped their drinks as Hayner and Roxas danced off against each other. When they were done, Roxas noticed the two boys at the table and the kitchen became free for all.

"Hey you guys, these are good." Olette commented, eating her milk shake with her spoon.

"Of course they are, _we_ made them, after all." Riku said.

By now though, Riku's unusual manner of humor was known and so Olette simply laughed it off. The rest of the night went by without any drama. As for how the next day would be though, the same couldn't be said.

VVV

VictorianPearl: Alright, we have another update. I've had tests, papers, and Disney Land Grad Night trip, but I managed to finish this one. I hope you all liked it.

**L:** Thanks for the corrections, I'm on proud mode as well and I noticed a few of my mistakes as I was playing through it. As for Riku's keyblade, the name _Way to Dawn_ sounded familiar to me, but in the game, Riku said something about using his "Soul Eater". So if he wasn't talking about his keyblade then what _was_ he talking about?

**Unmortem:** Thanks for the review. Yeah, as I said above, I started to catch some of the things I left out from before while I was playing proud mode. Thanks for telling me though.

VictorianPearl: I did have some mistakes, but that's what happens when one tries to update, finish school work, dance, and job hunt all at the same time! X.x I hope you all understand and thanks for cooperating with me!


	6. Reflections of Sunlight

VictorianPearl: After all of the end of the year and graduation requirements, I am finally done with high school and am able to continue working without interruptions. I hope you all enjoy this chapter.

**Golden Rays**

**Chapter 6**

**Reflections of Sunlight**

Another day had dawned in Twilight Town. Already, Hayner, Pence, and Olette were at school and just beginning their first period class. They groaned as the teacher announced the topic of the day. What they really wanted to be doing, instead of just sitting their, was helping Roxas and the others figure everything out.

Olette, who was always paying strict attention to the lectures with a straight back and quick hand, was slouching in her seat with her chin in her hand. She was drumming her eraser tip on her desk as the lecture seemed to have started an hour ago as apposed to five minutes ago. She glanced at the clock. Only _three_ minutes had gone by? That was impossible!

The usually outstanding student looked around the room. She saw many of the other kids looking much the same as she did now. She was surprised by what she saw. She had never really noticed it before. She saw Pence sketching out some photos and Hayner was actually asleep on his desk. She didn't know _how_ he managed to sleep when everything going on outside was so exciting…but this _was_ Hayner she was thinking about.

Another glance at the clock told Olette that only another minute and a half had gone by. She mentally groaned. She took up Pence's idea and started to sketch some things out on her paper. She doodled some daisies and ribbon before drawing a blank and loosing interest. It was going to be a long day.

VVV

"Come on Sora, let's hurry!" Roxas exclaimed.

"Roxas, it's going to be alright, we can't rush the others." Sora explained.

Roxas looked at the gummi ship. He and Sora were standing outside waiting for everyone else to arrive. Roxas was tapping his foot and pacing back and forth, constantly looking toward the gates.

"Can't we just go on without them?" Roxas asked.

"Well…we _could_, but I don't want to get in trouble with Kairi." Sora said, blushing a little.

Roxas sighed in defeat. "Am I the only one so anxious about this?"

"No, you're just the only one that's not handling it so well." Sora laughed, placing a hand on Roxas's shoulder. "Don't worry, we'll go to the computer room and figure everything out from there. Whatever is waiting for us down there is still waiting for us, it won't go anywhere."

"I know, I know." Roxas sighed. "It's just that-I'm so excited, I don't want to wait for all of these things to happen, even though I know that I have to."

Sora just smiled and nodded. "Well, it looks like the others finally showed up."

Roxas looked toward the gate where Kairi, Riku, Donald, and Goofy were arriving. They walked in with pleasant looks on their faces.

"Where were you guys?" Sora asked.

"We had to clean up the house, but you two left before we got started." Kairi said.

"It's alright," Sora replied, "I'm sorry we ran off like that, Roxas was a little eager though."

"You two get cleaning duty tomorrow." Riku pointed out. "And you guys can do it alone. It will be Wednesday so the others won't be there to help you."

Sora stuck his tongue out at Riku who rolled his eyes in return.

"Enough talking, let's go!" Roxas said, grabbing Sora's arm and dragging him up to the mansion doors.

"Wait for the rest of us." Donald shouted, running to catch up with the two look-alike boys.

Roxas practically kicked the doors to the Old Mansion open, causing Riku to cringe. Roxas looked at him apologetically for about a spare millisecond before pulling Sora with him up the stairs.

"Someone's a little anxious." Riku mumbled under his breath, causing Kairi to giggle.

The group took the left staircase up to the library. Kairi looked the place over as she and Riku trailed in the back.

"I wonder what happened here." She said. "It looks like there was a fight or something."

Riku didn't answer. His eyes seemed to turn glassy, but when Kairi looked again, he seemed to be his normal self. They continued up the stairs and through the door of the library. Roxas was on the floor with a yellow color crayon and the spell that Yen Sid had given them.

Roxas copied the magical pattern that was on the paper onto the floor with his yellow crayon, just the same as he had finished it by looking at Naminé's art book not so long ago. When he was done he jumped up and backed toward the wall with the others.

The floor gave a rumble. There was a _click_ before the floor began to open up, revealing a staircase leading downward. Roxas gave Sora the spell paper, who in turn, stowed it away in one of his many pockets for safe keeping.

The friends made their way down the stairs to the computer room. They went through the door to the dark computer room, lit by the blue glow of the computer. Riku went ahead and sat down in the chair. He began to type some things. After a while, the screen changed to show countless files labeled and in alphabetical order.

Riku span around his chair around to face the others. "What do you want to know first?"

"First, I want to be able to go back and say goodbye to my old town." Roxas said quietly. "I have to get this out of the way."

Riku nodded. "Sure, I'll activate the portal right now."

Riku span back around and did some more typing and dragging of the mouse. When he pressed down the enter button, there was a flash, and then the thin line of darkness. When he was done, Riku faced the others again.

"Take your time Roxas, but don't take all day." Riku instructed.

Roxas nodded. "Right,"

The blonde boy walked to the dark line. He looked back before he stepped in. He saw all of his friends, looking at him encouragingly, telling him that it would all be okay, just by the looks on their faces. He smiled at them, thanking them for their support before stepping in through the portal.

Roxas was enveloped by darkness, then a burst of light, and then darkness again. When he opened his eyes, he was back in the computer room, but in the other room. A blue faltering light came from what was left of the broken screen of the computer, blinking in and out through life. Looking around, Roxas felt suppressed by his old emotion and memory.

The teen took a deep breath and walked through the room and up the stairs. He reemerged in the pit in the library. He continued his walk, looking at everything, feeling as if he were walking through his old memories, which in a way, he was. He continued out of the door, down the steps and out of the Old Mansion. It was painful to see his old home, his old life, where he was once so happy and didn't even realize it.

Making his way through the woods, the Tram common, and up to the Sunset Station, Roxas climbed up the steps in the clock tower and sat on the ledge of it, overlooking the town. He saw the train, the sun, and some people carrying on as usual. They didn't deserve to live a contained life in a place that wasn't real, _they_ weren't even real.

Roxas wondered if anyone here even remembered him. He remembered the last day he spent here. His friends didn't even see him, they walked right through him. Was it even worth it to try? No. He needed to get rid of this place. Perhaps he couldn't convince the others to do it right away, but it needed to be done in the near future. As long as this place existed, it would always be looming at the back of his mind. It would haunt his dreams and his every step, to know that it was there but that he could never go back was a torture too great for him to carry for much longer.

"Goodbye…" Roxas whispered. He watched the sun colored clouds drift in the sky. He would take in as much as he could before he would leave.

VVV

"So what do you guys want to look up while we're waiting?" Riku asked.

"Well, the king said that we had to get rid of the nobodies left behind." Goofy started. "When we defeated the heartless, the hearts went to kingdom hearts, but what happens when we defeat the nobodies?"

"I think…the souls inside are released…" Riku trailed.

Kairi noticed that Sora gave him a little bit of a confused look. It wasn't what he said that confused Sora, rather, how he said it, so wistfully. But nobody bothered to stay on the subject.

"The king also said that this was the only world where the nobodies were appearing." Sora said. "Can we find out where they are coming from, or why this is their target?"

"I don't think so." Riku said. "This computer is all of DiZ's calculations, notes, facts, etc. But, I'm sure we could find some things to give us leads as to why they're doing this, but don't be expecting too much."

"Considering how much we don't know, I'm sure we can find something that will be helpful." Kairi said positively.

Riku clicked on the files folder which contained all of the files that concerned nobodies. As they began to read through many of them, they saw that they were mostly just an analyses of the different types of nobodies and their strength status. Not to say that the information was particularly unneeded or useless, it just wasn't what the five friends were looking for at the moment.

As they continued to search through the files on the computer, there was an odd vibration that caused the room to shake slightly.

"What was that?" Donald asked.

"Let's go see." Goofy said. He walked up the stairs and out the door to the pit in the library. He let out his character yell before running back down the stairs. "It's the nobodies, and the really tough ones."

"Alright," Sora said, standing and quickly summoning his keyblade. "Donald, Goofy, you two and I will go out and protect this computer room from the nobodies." Sora turned to Riku and Kairi. "You two, stay here with the computer in case Roxas comes back, we should be able to take care of the nobodies on our own."

The three warriors flew up the stairs and slammed the door behind him. Kairi clasped her hands to her chest. "Be careful, Sora." She whispered.

"They'll be fine." Riku said. "After all, he fights to protect the ones he loves the most, his best friend, his girlfriend, and the other half of his heart."

"Yes," Kairi whispered in agreement, "you're right Riku, you're always right."

In the pit of the library, the battle was taking place. Donald had started off with his signature bizzaga spell casting. Goofy used his shield as a boomerang to sweep up the stairs, hitting the dragoon, sniper, and sorcerer nobodies that were standing on the steps. Sora ran forward and immediately took out the front two dragoons out with one swipe of his keyblade.

Two thundaga attacks from Donald took out three of the six sorcerers floating in the air. A sniper attempted to his Goofy, but Sora warped it and ended up taking out the sniper. Goofy performed a tornado attack, taking out a dragoon and Sora helped Donald with a fantasia attack, taking out the remaining snipers.

The three remaining sorcerers fired a blast of magic, hitting the three champions and sending them flat on their backs. This really fired up Donald's temper.

"You'll be sorry for that!" The sailor outfitted duck yelled. He ran up the steps in range of the sorcerers and performed a firaga attack, eliminating the last of the nobodies. He gave a little "hmph" and crossed his arms.

"It's not over yet, Donald." Sora said, he and Goofy standing up and looking at the top of the stairs.

Donald turned his attention to the top of the stairs as well. Many lights appeared, indicating the appearance of more nobodies. Six berserkers hovered for a moment, and then _pound_, landed on the ground all at once, sending a tremor through the room. For each berserker nobody that appeared, an equal amount of both dancer and assassin nobodies appeared. Five creepers also came up from the floor.

"Twenty-three against three isn't fair." Goofy commented.

"Yeah," Sora agreed, "it's sure not fair…for _them_, that is."

A fair amount of thundaga attacks cracked along the top of the stairs, depleting a little health from each nobody. Sora checked his mega-potions, making sure that he had them ready.

"Alright guys," the keyblade bearer said, "let's do this."

VVV

Roxas made his way back to the computer room in the fake Twilight Town. He felt that he had spent a long enough time there that was proper enough for a goodbye. He hesitated before stepping into the portal though, making sure to take one last good look around the room. Finally Roxas was ready, he stepped forward, but found that the portal was no longer there.

"What…?" Roxas said out loud.

The blonde looked around himself, searching for the portal that would take him back to his friends, but it was nowhere to be found. He frowned, something was wrong here.

"Ro-x-s,"

"Hu?" Roxas looked around the room for who had said his name.

"Roxa-s, are-there-oxas?"

Roxas realized that the voice was coming from the badly damaged computer. He walked over to the frizzing screens. The image of Riku frizzed in and out of view, or at least, Roxas could tell it was Riku by the white hair. Kairi's red hair could also be seen swirling in the background, but it was hard to make out anything on the computer screen.

"What's wrong?" Roxas spoke loudly, hoping that his friends would hear him.

"There's-prob-em. The comput…shor…ceted-and we're tr-ing to ge- yo…ack." Riku's choppy voice explained.

Although Roxas couldn't really hear the message all that well, he knew enough to let him know that there was a problem. There was probably little he could do to help either, considering how much damage the computer had. Trying to work on it might end up shutting it off, which would leave him without communication at all, even if his present communication wasn't all that great.

"Riku, if you can hear me, I'll wait for you to get things fixed." Roxas said.

There was a low fizzing sound, as if Riku was talking again, but no distinct sound could be made from it. All that was left to do was wait.

_About 3 Minutes Earlier_

Kairi and Riku were still in the computer room, trying to listen to what was going on above them. They heard clanging, crashing, and some yelling before it became silent again. The two sighed in relief, but tensed up again as a strong vibration swept through the basement.

"What happened?" Riku asked.

There was a fizzing sound coming from the corner. Kairi and Riku watched as the portal blinked in and out of existence before completely disappearing.

"This is not good." Kairi moaned.

"I think we're dealing with a short circuit in the system." Riku said. He reached over and flipped a switched, causing a lot of static noises to be heard.

"What did you just do?" Kairi asked.

"I turned on the microphone on the computer." Riku replied. "If Roxas shows up before we can fix this, we can access to him this way."

Before Riku could even start to sort out the problem, they heard a dimly static, "What…?" come through the speaker.

"That's Roxas!" Kairi cried in surprise.

"Roxas," Riku said into the microphone.

The faint sound of Roxas's voice traveled through the fizzing speakers.

"Roxas, are you there, Roxas?" Riku asked, hoping his message got across.

"What's wro-g?" Roxas's voice asked.

"There's a problem." Riku started. "The computer short circuited and we're trying to get you back."

"Rik…if you-an hear me, I'll wait f-r you to ge…ings fix-d."

"That's good enough for me." Riku mumbled.

The white haired boy started to click and type like crazy, trying to stabilize the computer. He rebooted the system and everything returned to normal. Once that happened, he was able to activate the portal again.

In the fake Twilight Town, the portal reappeared in a flash of light. Roxas smiled and immediately stepped through and was transported back to his friends. He appeared in the computer room to be looking at Riku and Kairi.

"You're back," Kairi said, relieved to see him.

"What happened here?" Roxas asked, walking toward the two. "Where are the other three?"

"A bunch of nobodies appeared in the library." Kairi said. "So many, that when they landed, it sent the whole place shaking and gave the computer problems."

"They're still out there?" Roxas asked.

Kairi nodded her head.

"I'm going to go help him." Roxas announced before rushing up the stairs and out of the computer room.

"He acts way too much like Sora." Riku commented.

Kairi nodded her head, smiling. "You bet he does."

When Roxas arrived at the pit in the library, he saw his three friends engaged in an intense battle. They were presently battling three berserkers, two dancers and an assassin.

The blonde boy immediately joined the battle with no explanation. The fresh fighter took out the remaining dancers with a few fast strokes.

Sora didn't wait for an explanation, he jumped beside Roxas and the two of them lunged their keyblades into one of the berserkers, eliminating it. Donald swung his staff at the assassin and cast a reflega before it attacked, sending the attack right back and destroying the assassin.

Goofy and Sora took one of the remaining berserkers while Roxas and Donald took the other. Three bizzaga spells, one firaga spell, a tornado, and five keyblade sweeps later, the last two nobodies were gone.

The four friends congratulated each other on their victory.

"I'm glad you showed up, Roxas, you sure didn't stay gone as long as I thought you would." Sora said.

"Yeah, well…" Roxas trailed.

At that moment, the door to the library creaked open a little. The four friends raised their weapons in defense, but no nobodies came through the door. Instead, they were greeted with a hopping cricket.

"Jiminy!" Sora exclaimed as the cricket hopped onto his shoulder.

"What are you doing here?" Donald asked.

"Sora, Donald, Goofy, Roxas, it's good to see you all again." Jiminy replied. "I have good news for you all. I'm here with the king!"

VVV

VictorianPearl: Will you look at that, another chapter. For some reason, it took me forever to just sit down and type this thing, but when I did, I finished it in a couple of hours. Anyway, sorry for making you all wait so long. I hope you enjoyed this one!


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